GILF Hunter

Chapter 286: 286 Eat this..

The Ian Mercenary Group set up camp in a spot close to the wagon.

As the sun set and a thick darkness instantly blanketed the forest, the eerie sound of trees swaying in the wind drifted past.

Unlike their previous camping drills in relatively safe areas, they were now inside a monster’s territory.

There was no luxury to set up a proper campsite or light a campfire. Everyone sat huddled together, wrapped only in blankets, back-to-back as they kept watch over their surroundings.

Rin stole a glance at Tanya face, who was sitting right next to her.

"Tanya. Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

Rin spoke softly to Tanya, who looked drained of energy.

Tanya, who had seemed excessively tense since they departed, now sat despondently, looking exhausted as if she had overtaxed her mental strength.

It was a heavy matter for the person involved, making it difficult for Rin to just casually tell her not to overdo it.

While pondering what to do, Rin opened her pouch.

Since she wasn’t eloquent enough to offer comfort with fancy words in a situation like this, Rin pulled out something she had packed beforehand after much thought.

Eating something was the best way to regain energy, after all.

Rin held out a snack she had pulled from her pocket toward Tanya.

"Tanya. Eat this."

"Huh? Oh... thanks."

Tanya hesitantly accepted what Rin handed over.

And immediately after.

"Here. Eat this too."

"I brought this one as well."

Rin rummaged through her pockets once moreâ¦.

"This too."

"Rin. How much food did you bring?"

Tanya, who had been quietly accepting what Rin gave her, ended up looking like a squirrel because Rin kept handing her food.

Thanks to Rin continuously pulling out hidden treats, Tanya finally let out a small laugh. "Haha."

"I’m sorry, everyone. I was being a bit... wasn’t I?"

"Don’t worry too much. Even if it wasn’t because of your friends, this was a mission where we had to hurry as much as possible."

Only then did Tanya realize she had been making the atmosphere too heavy and apologized. Ian, who was looking over the nearby terrain by shining a small light on the map, replied.

As Tanya fell silent again, Ian struck up a conversation.

"So, Tanya. Do you want to tell us about those friends?"

"My friends?"

"Knowing what kind of personalities they have might be helpful."

It wasn’t as if Ian could perform a psychological analysis, and hearing about their personalities likely wouldn’t reveal where they had fled to.

He just thought that talking might help ease Tanya’s tension.

After a long time... Tanya recalled her friends from her hometown.

Looking back, it seemed she had been trying to forget them on purpose recently.

"We were village friends, but..Honestly, our personalities didn’t match all that well. I was too different from them."

They became friends simply because they lived next door.

Childhood friendships were often formed that way, without any specific reason.

Anne, Karen, Seria.

They were all lively, proactive, and the type to jump at any opportunity that came their way.

"We planned to go to the city later and open a shop together. Since I’m the best at cooking, I’d do the cooking. while everyone else helped with what they were good at."

Going out to the city. It was a dream shared by almost all children in the countryside.

And those children who dreamed such dreams naturally faced the same problem as they became adults.

"But, you couldn’t save enough money in the countryside to open a shop in the city."

Everyone nodded silently, or perhaps just in their minds.

They could all more or less understand that feeling.

Hadn’t they all rushed out of their rural villages to become mercenaries for the exact same reason?

It was perhaps natural that such friends became motivated after hearing stories about the Labyrinth.

"My friends went to the Labyrinth saying they had earn the money to open the shop. I stayed behind in the village because I was too scared to become a mercenary."

Maybe I should have followed them back then.

That was the thought that occurred to her after arriving at the Labyrinth late in search of her friends and starting mercenary work.

If I had the courage to do this now, I should have just gone with my friends back then.

Mika, sitting on the opposite side, asked.

"Is that why you started mercenary work?"

"Yeah."

Tanya nodded.

"I thought maybe I could hear some old rumors, or where they wentâ¦. some kind of news."

At the very least. how they’ve been, or what happened to them.

"Let’s at least go back to the village with some news."

That was the heart with which she had started as a mercenary.

"Wait. Quiet."

Lia raised her head and straightened up slightly.

The sound of leaves rustling. The chirping of grass insects.

Beyond that, from far away, an alien noise that hadn’t been there before drifted faintly toward them.

Shrrrk

"..!"

Everyone, who had been listening quietly, heard it clearly this time.

The cries of beasts... monsters, the shouting of a person, and the sound of an explosion.

It was the noise of battle.

"It’s nearby! Let’s go!"

At Ian’s shout, everyone sprang to their feet.

***

"..."

Through the bushes and branches covering the cave entrance, a small-statured mercenary peeked outside.

In the distance, a few Gnolls could be seen passing by.

"Don’t those things ever sleep at night?"

The mercenary, muttering a complaint too quiet to be heard outside, returned to the interior of the cave.

Inside the cave sat two companions resting with exhausted faces and the alchemist, who was the target of this escort.

"How is it?"

"They have no intention of leaving."

Being able to hide in a nearby cave they were lucky to find had been a blessing, but they were gradually reaching their limit.

"The food we packed is almost gone. Should we try going out tomorrow?"

"Mm... no, let’s wait."

In this situation, the clientâs will was most important, and Louise, the client, seemed to have no intention of moving from here at all.

"I took out insurance with the Labyrinth Guild. A rescue team might arrive soon."

"We came deep into a forest like this; how are they supposed to know and find us?"

A rescue team. It was a name that sparked hope just by hearing it, but thinking about it coolly, there was no possibility.

They had deviated from the proper original route and entered the forest like this; how could a rescue team be lucky enough to find them right away?

Entering this forest in the first place had been a wrong choice.

Anne, the mercenary hired as Louiseâs escort, let out a small sigh.

"Sigh. Just what was that flower worth for us to enter a place like this."

"Oh my. You guys were excited and agreed once you heard the price, didn’t you?"

Normally, they would never have approached an unfamiliar forest like this.

The problem had arisen because of the client alchemist’s keen eye.

The client, noticing that alchemy ingredients that only grow for a short period were growing in clusters in the nearby forest, had made a proposal to the mercenaries.

Asking what they thought about going in for a moment to pluck the flowers.

Normally, Anne and her friends would never have done such a dangerous thing.

However, they were in a situation where they needed as much money as possible to settle down and operate in the Labyrinth.

The problem was that they had heard beforehand just how expensive that flowerâthe alchemy ingredientâwas.

They had only heard through rumors that rar alchemy ingredients commanded prices beyond imagination, and the rumors were not exaggerated.

How could a mercenary refuse after hearing that priceâ¦.

"And I was sufficiently careful. I even lit incense to mask our scent."

The sharp-featured alchemist grumbled, pointing toward the outside of the cave.

"They’re running wild like that because you messed with the trophies the Gnolls had collected."

"How was I to know that pile of trash was a trophy? You didn’t know either."

It was supposed to be a simple job: just pick the flowers and get out, as long as they didn’t go too deep into Gnoll territory.

The problem was moving the junk that was sitting in the middle of the path.

A pile of trash consisting of wooden logs and tattered cloth that had been blocking the way.

Thinking it was trash left behind by another mercenary group that had passed by previously, they had cleared them from in front of the wagon.

"To think such things were trophies collected by Gnolls."

Anne wore a look of unfairness no matter how much she thought about it.

It was the habit of Gnolls to collect found trophies and pile them in one place. It was also a marker of their territory.

When people who have never seen a Gnoll hear about them "piling up trophies," they often imagine a jackpot of various weapons, armor, or things that might be worth money.

In reality, however, what Gnolls picked up and gathered was closer to piles of trash like wooden logs or rags.

Gnolls collected anything that had been processed by human hands, without exception.

They hadn’t known beforehand that this was Gnoll territory. Furthermore, it just happened to be right on the path where people traveled.

To someone without prior knowledge, it looked exactly like trash someone had dumped.

Because they had cleared it from the road, the Gnolls were currently on a rampage to retaliate against the intruders who had touched their trophies.

They had lost their wagon after being attacked by the pursuing pack of Gnolls and had been driven into the forest, barely managing to hide for several days.

It was time to find a new way, but the client seemed to want to keep holding out here.

Should she find an opening and check the outside even by herself?

Just as Anne was contemplating that, the cry of a Gnoll was heard from outside.

Anne felt an instinctive chill upon hearing the cry, which sounded slightly different from usual.

"I-I think we’ve been found!"

Anne, who had peeked outside, hurriedly woke and called the others inside.

Everyone scrambled to gather their equipment and stood up.

"Don’t you have any remaining potions or something?"

Louise also hurriedly rummaged through her bag.

Unfortunately, the useful ones had already been used up. What remained wasâ¦.

"I only have things like this."

"Use even that for now!"

What Louise pulled out was an explosive potion.